spam from my e-mail?

[Farmer Mike]

I went on line to check my e-mail this morning. I was surprised to see about 20 returned mail/spam notifications originating from my address. Most were to addresses in Russia, but a couple were in Italy. I know nobody in those countries and didn't send these.

I'm wondering if my computer has been compromised or if some third party spoofed my e-mail address. What do I look for and how would I fix it? I'm running Fedora Core Linux 6.

[jayd512]

This Short Guide to Security might have some stuff you need.

[MikeTbob]

Basically, your right, your email was spoofed in order to make it look like it came from yourself. All in an effort to get you to click on it. I simply delete these on sight, without bothering to investigate.

[Farmer Mike]

I did run chrootkit and found nothing. The 'returned' emails had attachments in hexadecimal - maybe a viral payload.

I also learned about one Windows email virus, KLEZ.H, that adds in an email address from the victim's address book when it spreads itself, to spoof where it comes from. I guess I'd better go check Dad's Vista machine soon.